Create your own winter dawn

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Halleluiah. Daylight savings time is ending this weekend. Using a dawn simulator I’ve been using my dawn simulator to wake up in the dark mornings. I’ll continue using it because the weak rays of the fall and winter dawn aren’t enough to pull me out of my warm bed. (Truth be told, the only things [...]

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Get your insurance company to buy your light box

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You’ve done your homework, have read about seasonal depression and have downloaded the Light Therapy Light Guide to shop for the best one for your needs. Paperwork, paperwork If you’re considering buying a light box you may be able to get reimbursed for the cost from your insurance company. But just like anything to do [...]

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Take steps to beat the winter blues

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It’s early October and folks are feeling the first touches of the winter blues. The days are shorter, cloudier and besides the cold in the air, you might feel a bit of panic setting in as you think about how difficult winter can be. Winter doesn’t have to be so hard I’m putting the final [...]

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Warning: Skipping breakfast consumes you

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I continue to be awed at the elegant way our body clocks run our lives, and stunned at how our backward lifestyles are destroying our innate health. As a culture we’re obsessed with thinness and calorie counting. Skipping breakfast is seen as a way to keep calories down. For a caffeine-addicted society, coffee can count [...]

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How light therapy helps seasonal depression

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What’s in the Bright Light series Light therapy is the best thing since sunshine. While learning to build houses, harness electricity and sow crops has allowed humans to survive in harsh and changeable climates, we’ve lost one key to survival in the process — access to enough sunshine. Most of us live most of our [...]

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Why you feel blue when the sun shines

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Many of us are sunflowers: We need lots of sunshine to thrive, grow tall and blossom. A few of us are more like the trillium you find on the forest floor, a shade-loving, spring-blooming perennial woodland wildflower. Most of are probably more like shamrocks, which are happiest in bright, but not direct sunlight. One chance [...]

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Take advantage of summer energy while you have it

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Halfway through the summer and I feel like I’m still skipping down the boardwalk by the beach, squinting into the sun. My energy is high, focused and endless. With plentiful sunshine I have wide latitude – I can eat pretty much what I want without going into a carb coma, exercising doesn’t feel like moving [...]

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Protect your brain: Get some sunshine and Vitamin D

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Two new medical studies suggest that spending a little time in the sun every day and a supplemental vitamin might keep our brains sharper longer. Hello sunshine Vitamin D continues to shine as the darling nutrient of the decade as researchers learn more about its seemingly endless benefits to our health. Our bodies manufacture vitamin [...]

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Joining a mission big and bold

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The Internet is an amazing place. With a flash of lightening, the landscape is transformed. The Winter Blues Coach is now contributing to The Daily Brainstorm: A Blogazine to Rock Your Mind, launching July 12 on an Internet connection near you. A blogazine is netspeak for an aggregate blog that pulls in posts from a [...]

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Desperately seeking summer

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“Is light therapy good for summer depression?” “I’m sad when it’s cloudy.” “Why am I sad in warm weather?” I am touched by the Google searches finding my posts about warm weather blues and Summer SAD. If you’re feeling consistently blue during the summer, it may be Summer SAD, or it may not. While less [...]

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Happy Solstice | Welcome Summer SAD

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Summer relief? Many people breathed a silent sigh of relief yesterday with the official start of summer in the Northern Hemisphere. “Finally. I made it through winter again.” Ironically, just when we feel it’s really, truly safe to go outside and we can bask in the warmth of the sun, the daily minutes of sunshine [...]

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Fighting the Warm Weather Blues

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Caught by the Calendar Most of the articles you read on Seasonal Affective Disorder confidently state that SAD disappears with the onset of spring. And what if it doesn’t? It is now mid June in Michigan and I’m not sure I can say I’ve shaken off all of the spring depression I had this season. [...]

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Surprise of Spring Depression

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We Can’t Trust the Calendar Springtime is not an automatically light-filled and easy season for many people. The official start of spring in the Northern Hemisphere was March 20. But based on the Google searches that are finding this blog, lots of people are still struggling with seasonal depression and the whack to their body [...]

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How to Recover from Daylight Savings Time

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Don’t Mess With My Mornings Oh joy. Spring forward. Daylight savings time is here. For years I have resented the spring and fall time changes and now I understand why: Dark-again mornings throw my body clock and circadian rhythm out of whack just as my system is returning to normal after the long winter.

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Winter’s Quiet Starts to Fade

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The sun is shining for the sixth consecutive day (the longest stretch we’ve had all winter), the temperatures have been dancing into the 40s and 50s°F and much of the snow has melted. It looks like spring might truly arrive. And one of the things I love about winter will fade away, too. The quiet.

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How to Make Tough Decisions When You’re Overwhelmed by Winter

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The Sinister Effects of SAD It can be difficult to see the debilitating effects of the winter blues and seasonal depression when we’re in their grip. Recently a friend helped me realize how hard it can be to make a decision when you’re caught in a winter low point. Jane (not her real name) put [...]

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Sunless Days Mean January Struggles

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In the Northern Hemisphere we’ve gained about 1 minute per day of sunlight since the winter solstice, the official start of winter, on Dec. 21. Have you noticed? I haven’t. Other than a couple of afternoons when it still seemed to be a bit lighter when I left work, January has been almost a continual [...]

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5 Best Books to Beat the Winter Blues

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I’m a firm believer that knowledge equals power. Here are my choices for books that will help you understand how to manage the winter blues and seasonal affective disorder.  I will add more relevant books as they come across my desk, so please feel free to email me suggestions. Winter Blues: Seasonal Affective Disorder, What [...]

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January is the worst time to make resolutions

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I ‘ll be  the contrarian today. Don’t make any New Year resolutions or set any goals. Wait. Wait until spring, when the natural rhythms and cycles are in your favor with the fresh energy of growth and change. If you’re struggling with seasonal depression or the winter blues, making New Year resolutions is a sure [...]

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Winter Solstice|Winter Survival Light

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You may notice that today is the winter solstice, the official start of winter in the northern hemisphere. The winter solstice held ritual significance for ancient cultures, marking one of the turning points of the solar year – the shortest day and the longest night. From here, almost imperceptibly, the days get longer and the [...]

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White, Blue, Green? Which light is best?

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This is the sixth article in the Bright Light series. If you’re confused about the differences between bright white light therapy, blue LED light and low-intensity green light therapy, you’re in the right place. Give me a minute. Lots of research into light therapy That’s good news. Researchers are learning more all the time about [...]

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